Happy 1st Birthday Mini Fox!

Today is Mini Fox's 1st birthday (at 11:19pm tonight technically). Wow, what a year it has been. It seems like she was just born yesterday! How it is possible that she is 1 already?

The Stats (in bullet form):

• About 19 pounds
• Crawing like a crazy woman
• Standing assisted
• Just recently likes to cruise around the furniture
• No interest in walking
• Likes to climb on things - she's currently trying to climb over the play kitchen to get into the fire place
• Loves eating food
• Loves eggs, chicken, and broccoli the most (in that order)
• Dislikes Mashed Potatoes, Yams and Blueberries
• Loves her brother something fierce, wants to be around him all the time. Cries when he goes off with Nana and Ampa and she has to stay home. 
• Smiles used to be hard to come by but recently she's been giving them out a little more freely
• Always happy, and hardly ever complains
• Has her two bottom teeth. Doesn't seem like any of the other teeth are near coming in.
• Uses a Nebulizer daily (insert sad face here)
• Wears a size 3 diaper, size 9 month and 12 month clothes
• Love her bedtime routine with Mommy and Daddy
• Loves being in the water, either the pool/spa or bathtime. Cries when we take her out
• Loves her Daddy the most and has him wrapped around her little finger

I know I've never posted these before, so I figured that today would be a good day. Here's our baby girl over the past year...sniff sniff.

Somehow I forgot to do one for 7 months, oops!

My most favorite picture, she looks like a little china doll

I'll take today's picture tonight when I get home, but I can't hardly believe she's 1!

We Love You to the Moon and Back Mini Fox!

p.s. A really good friend (since 1st grade), just had a baby boy today, Mini Fox has a birthday buddy, I'm so excited for my friends and can't wait to meet their little bundle of joy!

Baby Fox Starts Preschool and a 5K

So Friday was Baby Fox's first day of preschool...there were tears...a lot of tears. I wish I could say there were from my end, but unfortunately it wasn't. But he was excited, until his teacher opened the door, then the waterworks started.

We started off with pictures at home... I had this really cute sign I made, but then I couldn't print it out...darn. So a hand drawing will have to do.

Walking there, all was okay...

Yep, gotta get a selfie in

He got tired of walking, so I carried him the rest of the way. Lazy bum.

Before we knocked on the door, he asked us if we could just stay for 5 more minutes

Then she answered the door...and all hell broke loose. He couldn't stop crying, and wouldn't let go. It was so sad, and I couldn't handle it. But we had to let him go, so the teacher held on tight as Mr. and I tried to walk away as fast as we could...you know trying to rip the band-aid off as fast as possible style. Good news though, by the time we walked home, the teacher had called and said he was playing in the backyard and doing great. This morning, was the same, except on the walk over he pretty cried the whole way saying he didn't want to go (so I'm told). We'll see what happened during the day, I'll keep you posted.

Our walk home

The our daycare provider had a doctors appointment so I was on Mini Fox duty.

We ate some breakfast

She played the piano while I tried to get some work done. Work was not happening so we played around in Daddy's office area.

After school I took just Baby Fox on a special first day of school treat.

After naptime we made some desserts for going over to my aunt and uncle's house on Saturday. Fact: Did you know that angel food cake takes 12 egg whites and Creme Brulee takes 10 egg yolks? Yep so I made both. It's super easy, really, much easier than you would think...Seriously. And who doesn't love to use a torch to crisp up some food? That's Mr.'s favorite part of creme brulee.

Checking to see if the egg whites were whipped enough

Baby Fox is eating a grape

Saturday was pretty low key, we knew were going to be going and spending the night at my aunt and uncle's. Mini Fox explored one of Baby Fox's toy bins

What do you do when you're out of ketchup for your hotdog? Well use the almost expired whipped cream of course. Eww, but he seemed to think it was pretty cool.

After naptime we headed to my Aunt and Uncle's. My aunt (far back), Cousin #3 (red shorts), her husband, my sister, Baby Fox, Mr. and my Uncle (back towards us)

Cutie #4 and Baby Fox, love watching them play together, they are just too cute for words. They were both asking about each other the whole day. As soon as we walked in the door, Baby Fox went running around looking for her.

My sisters version of a healthy dessert

Seriously, she brought all of this individually and the put it together at the party, crazy awesome right?

 Before going to bed, I got to brush my teeth and what do I find? Yep Mr. packed Baby Fox's bubble gum toothpast. I told Mr. that he brought the wrong toothpaste, and he says, no I thought it would be fun. Fun it was not, brushing your teeth with bubble gum toothpaste is really gross, and it doesn't make you feel like you have clean teeth, gag!

Sunday we were up early for our 5K for Eveyln's Breast Friend Forever. From their website:

Our mission is to unite women with breast cancer through unifying social events. Together we are committed to support and enrich the lives of those we touch.Through fundraising, volunteer support, donations and ultimately financial generosity, our vision is to help raise the self confidence of women with breast cancer by providing funds to pay for breast reconstruction to uninsured women.
Unity is not our wish, it is our goal.

 It was seriously the most perfect weather for a 5K, even if I was dying and couldn't walk because it hurt more to walk, so I just kept going. Yep I pushed both kids in the Double Bob, for 3.1 miles. I did finished in about 36 minutes, 12 minute miles, not too bad. But I was dying, my legs hurt today :)

Bright and early

 All fresh and ready to go

Race is about to start

Baby Fox decided he wanted to get out and run for a bit, and when I say a bit, I mean like 10 seconds.

Beautiful view right? This is mile 1.5 or so.

Aunt and Mr. already got to the turn around and were headed back, I was happy to see them, meant I didn't have too much farther before the turn around.

I'm all hot sweaty, just finished maybe 5 minutes prior, they had been done for a while longer.

Selfie after running, still smiling

We told Baby Fox that we would take him to Starbucks if he was good during the run.

Waiting for our drinks/food

She finally fell asleep for a bit on the way home, I love bare baby feet. I don't want to put shoes on her...good thing she's not walking yet.

After we got home, everyone took a nap, well Mini Fox, not so sure, she "woke" up 1.5 hours before we thought she was going to...and she took a solid late nap, and then practically put herself to bed last night.

It was a great weekend with family and running. Even though I complain, I'm so glad that we're able to be with family, run at the beach and are able to support a great cause.

Linking up with Faith, Sarah and Heather for Mommy Moments

and with Bella & Lisa

Lesson 9: Why We Didn't Live Together Before Marriage - Part 1

In case you're new here, I've been doing a marriage series about what makes our marriage work. You can find other posts here. Go check them out.

Today it's all about why Mr. and I chose not to live together before marriage. Although it would have been way more convenient. I told you guys in the First Marriage Lesson that we didn't live together, and now here are the reasons why.


When we went to our Engaged Encounter there were approximately 50 couples, and we were one of the only couples that didn't live together. It's definitely not the norm but it worked for us. Actually my roommate who said she was going to stay until we got married and take over the apartment with her sister, moved out unexpectedly (a story to be told at another time) and left me with the all the bills. So Mr. had to help me out there, he had a roommate and used his roommates rent money to help me pay my rent. It was a crazy time, let me tell ya! Anyway I digress.

Before we even met we had never lived with anyone, and if we had been living with someone, we never would have gotten together. Yes we were both dating people, and we have both said that had we been living with someone we probably wouldn't have gotten together. But because we weren't living with those people, it was easy to break up with them. That being said both of us were near the end of those relationships. I was close to breaking up with my then boyfriend, but just couldn't pull the plug, he was a great guy and we had talked marriage, I loved him very much but our views on important things just were too different, i.e. how to raise children and I couldn't get past it. We had talked about it since we started dating, especially religion, and I thought we could get past it, but a year later were still having the same discussions.

I wasn't sure of the exact statistics and if you look it up, there are varying statistics, but Dr. Phil has a bunch of statistics, and frankly there are a little confusing, but I feel that people who live together who are just "testing" the waters to see if you are compatible are somewhere deep down not fully committed. Meaning deep down you know you can just walk away at any time. And I really do think that thought goes into the marriage too. You get married, but your living arrangement is still the same, you go home after the wedding to the same place you always have, so if that hasn't changed, why all of a sudden is that feeling of I can just walk away (whether it be conscious or subconscious) go away too? I do not think this applies to people who are engaged already who then move in together, although I would not do that, and didn't, as it would have been really easy to move in with Mr. when my roommate wanted the apartment and tried to kick me out. I do not think that moving in together should be taken lightly, and just because you are going to save money by living together, or you're always sleeping over at each others places is a good reason to move in together. Think about the future, can you see yourself living with this person the rest of your life? If the answer is yes, then why aren't you proposing, getting engaged, talking about marriage, moving on with the relationship? What is moving in together getting you?

If you answered, well I want to know if I am compatible with them. If you're compatible in every other way, does how he folds his socks really going to change your mind? If you have an absolute deal breaker, that you cannot and will not live with someone who does.....(fill in the blank), well then just ask them. Everything you do in marriage is compromise, when you start living together you find out the little things about the person that bother you. Case in point, Mr. didn't know I don't like putting things away when I know I'm going to use it the next night. This drove him crazy, and for the first couple months of marriage he went around and cleaned up after me. But then when it boiled down to it, he decided that it wasn't worth it for him to constantly clean up after me, and he decided that it wasn't going to bother him. Had it bothered him, we would have had a discussion about it, and I would have compromised. Things like that, aren't going to be marriage deal breakers, you talk about it and move on. If you can't talk about things that bother each other before then moving in together, moving in together isn't going to change that.

 
I have more on this topic, but will save for another day.

Easy No brainer Outfit for When You Don't Want to Think

Simple and easy for a Tuesday after a long weekend. Easy to grab outfit = perfect. Skirt, t-shirt, necklace, short jean jacket, neutral shoes.

This guy wanted to jump in the pictures, as usual

Speaking of this little guy, here's what happened to his poor face.

Monday after I got home from the gym, Mr. left for the gym and I decided to take the kids to the park before Mini Fox's morning nap. Baby Fox wanted to ride his scooter (seen above). Everything was fine until it wasn't. Baby Fox still hasn't really figured out the breaks yet, so when he wants to stop he tries to jump off and keep running with the scooter till it slows down. NOT the best breaking method. He got going a little too fast for him and tried to jump off, tripped and fell hard!

just around that bend is where he fell

I ran over to him and picked him up, checking his knees, his head was on my shoulder as I was checking out his knees. Then I went to check his hands and see blood running down his fingers, frantically I'm trying to figure out where all the blood is coming from. I see his lip is bloody so I have him open his mouth to see a pool of blood in there. I ask him if he bite his tongue, but he's just crying. I put him down to try and find something to soak up the blood, I was just about the take my shirt off (luckily I had a sports bra on under), but saw a tissue in the cup holder of the stroller. I threw that in his mouth to soak up some blood, and then figure out that he's cut his bottom inside lip really bad, to me it looked like it needed some stitches. I'm trying to carry Baby Fox, push Mini Fox in the stroller and carry the scooter...didn't work. So I put Baby Fox where Mini Fox's feet are and run home. Get a wet paper towel, and put that in his mouth.

So now I need to figure out what to do. I wanted to ask one of our neighbors what she thought, she has 5 kids and I needed a second opinion, plus if I need to go to the ER, she could watch Mini Fox until my parents or Mr. could get there. She wasn't home, but another neighbor (who I'm fairly certain thinks I'm a nut), said he thought it wasn't too bad and that mouths heal really fast. That calmed me down a bit, I went home and called the Pediatrician, and then called my parents to come over and get a second opinion, cause Mr. still wasn't answering his phone. Meanwhile my mom told me to call his dentist (luckily we had just gone on Friday), because it had to do with his mouth. So put in a call to them too. The doctor said, of course, to go into a kids urgent care to have someone look at it. But the pediatric dentist called back and said that we could take a picture of it and send it to her and she could tell us what to do. Which was such a great idea! She looked at it and said she didn't think that he needed to go in, and that mouths heal really quickly. She told me the different colors it would turn and what to expect. Made this Mama feel a little better.

Lessons learned:

1. Pediatric dentist - worth it to find a good one
2. When dealing with something with the mouth, call the dentist
3. Ice Cream fixes all things and will get your kid to continuously let you see the cut in his mouth

This is about 2 hours after it happened: That is a bruise on his chin, see the length of that bruise...the  cut in his mouth mimics that bruise. It's about 3/4 - 1 inch long and maybe 1-2mm wide.

And this the next day. You can see how much it is swollen. He told us that he had to figure out a new way to suck his fingers, resilient I tell ya.

I must love him a lot cause I went swimming when it was only 84° out. Mr. was working and he really wanted to go swimming.

Linking up with Because Shanna Said So, Get Your Pretty On, The Pleated Poppy, and Tucker Up